There is a need to autonomously monitor and assess the negative pressure wound therapy (“NPWT”) process and to provide a mechanism to interrupt the NPWT therapy in cases where a contraindication develops in the patient during use. There is also a further need to improve upon certain features of NPWT devices, such as safety, functionality and intelligent, real time feedback.
Current treatment protocols for assessing wound state involve the qualitative analysis by caregivers. Often, a caregiver will assess the condition of a wound by the way it looks or smells or the overall appearance of the exudates. Many times, however, the caregiver is not assessing the wound regularly or quantitatively. Such assessment may only occur at daily or weekly intervals, for example. A disadvantage to this treatment protocol is that the assessment is of old exudates. The physiological parameters of these exudates may change over time when compared to their original state in the wound. Color, microbes, oxygen, and temperature all change over time, so the assessment of the exudates at a time after they have been collected is not an accurate or reliable prediction of wound condition. Additionally, the flow of exudates may be a useful tool in wound assessment. Prior assessment techniques do not offer a viable solution for monitoring wound exudates flow.
There is a further need to provide a wound assessment system that may be added on to existing wound treatment devices, such as negative wound pressure therapy devices.